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Film & TV on DVD - John Doe News & Reviews

Greetings Film Fiends and welcome to John Doe's Film Blog. 30 years of dedicated celluloid obsession has meant that I have seen a few films. Drawing attention to some of the lesser discussed gems that I love. Cult classics, obscure curios and quality genre pictures. This blogs purpose is to translate some of my passion for these films and with luck, inspire you the reader to go check em out.

Coming Soon - Film & TV on DVD

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The Good, the Bad, The Weird Trailer

June 2nd 2008 00:00

The Glorious Oriental Western trend continues...

The poster with no name walks into a frontier town.

The Good The Bad The Weird

High on John Doe’s list of must see films screening at this years Sydney Film Festival is the new Takashi Miike Spaghetti Western Parody titled Sukiyaki Western Django. The idea of an Eastern minded tribute to the Sergio Leone style mythic cowboy legends demands JD’s full attention.

The comic book style The Good The Bad The Weird banner

Peeking and foraging around the darkened recesses of cinema on the net John Doe stumbled across a similar project scheduled for release in some countries. The trailer for this new Korean film, The Good The Bad, The Weird has to be shared. (Even if there is no local date appearing on the calendar.)

Referencing the title of Leone’s best known work with an oriental spin, the footage below reveals some John Woo/Sam Peckinpah bullet wielding. From koreanfilm.or.kr:
“Inspired by the Sergio Leone classic The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, the film also builds off a string of Korean genre films from the 1970s that combined the aesthetics of the Western with outlaw movements aligned against Japanese colonial forces.”

The Good The Bad The Weird character teaser

Rapidly reloaded Winchester rifles crack a gunpowder atmosphere. The sound of hoofs come up beside a moving train. Holsters are reached for, pistols swiftly fired, gun-barrels emptied and the slain fall to the ground. Death is always present, the heat unrelenting setting the scene for showdowns.

Directed by Kim Ji-woon (A Tale of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life) Woo-sung Jung (Musa: the Warrior) plays The Good. The Bad is Lee Byung-hun (A Bittersweet Life, G.I. Joe) and The Weird, Kang-ho Song. (The Host)

Shame it’s not screening at the Sydney Film festival, Johnny would have been in the audience.

The Good, the Bad, The Weird Trailer

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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Action, Foreign, Coming Soon, Westerns

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Frank Miller’s The Spirit – Teaser Trailer

April 20th 2008 04:44

Frank Miller becomes a Celluloid Artist.

The Spirit Teaser Poster

John Doe has always been a fan of Frank Miller’s (Hardboiled, Ronin) edgy graphic novels. His comics raised the bar on what was possible from the medium reinventing Batman for the new era.

In the last few years his Hollywood stocks have raised with the successful adaptations of his work like 300, Sin City and Batman: The Dark Knight. Violent, stylish and vicious his universes are polluted with tough talking pulp characters that thrive in the vile underbelly of society.

Comic Legend Frank Miller basks in digital film success

Working with Director Robert Rodriguez on Sin City, Frank learnt the art of cinema and Rodriguez’s loyalty and appreciation to his contribution saw him receive a co-director credit. (A decision which resulted in Rodriguez’s expulsion from the DGA)

The monumental box-office of Zack Snyder’s 300 cemented confidence that there is a demand to see his work in moving pictures and now Mr Miller is finally going it alone as Writer/Director of Will Eisner’s 1940’s penned The Spirit.

An alternate poster

Dark and brooding, reading like an adult’s only version of the classic comic book The Shadow, this inspirational original is a near perfect property for the cult hero to catapult himself into the arena of cinema artist.

The original 1940's comic book

This week we finally get to see the first teaser trailer for the film and it looks promising. To the accompaniment of Ennio Moriccone’s theme from Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables this clip follows our noir hero as he traverses the city scape.

Adopting a similar visual atmosphere to Sin City, the monochrome imagery is punctuated by striking use of colour, in this case a bright red tie. Revealing little other than the tone, it is still very exciting to watch with no spoilers involved.

Miller has managed to assemble an impressive cast to bring his vision to life with Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L Jackson, Jamie King, Paz Vega, Eva Mendes all supporting Gabriel Macht who plays the title role.

Scheduled for release in early 2009 you can rest assured that John Doe will be attending the cold blooded premiere with eager glee.

Note – JD purposefully has not included a synopsis for The Spirit comic so that those unfamiliar with it will remain untainted for this cinema event.

The Spirit Teaser Trailer

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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Action, Coming Soon, Film News and Views

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Akira 2009

March 29th 2008 12:36

Akira is one of my favourite films of all time. Released in 1988, it’s an achievement not just in Japanese animation of it’s time, but continues to demonstrate a quality of animation that equals that of modern cartoon animation.

Original Japanese Trailer.

Akira is an incredibly complex film. The government, the military, the scientists, the anti-government rebel groups, the delinquent children, the New age psycho hippies, the biker gangs; each live in a kind of intertwined struggle – each fighting against one other for power, frighted of each others potential. There’s a lot of varied motivations intertwined here, and it’s easy to loose track.

The film touches on many themes, but the most prominent is of the concept that ‘all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ The above groups are locked into their own power struggles, which are soon dwarfed by Tetsuo’s new, military testing induced psychic powers. As Tetsuos power grows, his control wanes, and everything spirals desperately out of control.

One of the things I love so much about the film is it’s soundtrack. The following video features one of the songs from the film. The visuals are enjoyable too, but I’d simply like to share the music with you. (Does contain violence).

Song: 'Kaneda' by Geinoh Yamashirogumi.

Lyrics; Japanese;

Arashi, gareki, honoo, kakera, machi, tatsumaki, chikara, hikari, yatsura, matsuri, sora, nakama, hashiru!
RASSERA, RASSERA, RASSE, RASSE, RASSERA!
RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSERA!

English: Storm, Rubble, Flame, Shards, City, Tornado, Power, Light, Them, Festival, Sky, Friends Running.
RASSERA, RASSERA, RASSE, RASSE, RASSERA!
RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSERA!

More information on the original Soundtrack can be found here.

The following video features the opening six minutes of the film, including the famous opening explosion.

The reason that I’ve been put in the mood to rant and rave over this film in particular, is that at present I’m equal parts nervous and exited over the announcement that there’s a new Akira film in the works.

Unlike the animated film which manages to squish six massive volumes of comics into one relatively small film, the live action film will be done Lord of the Rings Style, in two parts. This is probably for the best, as the current film is essentially a rough adaptation.

It is set to be produced by Leonardo Di Caprio, Andrew Lazar and Jennifer Davisson. No, I’ve never heard of those last two either. The script is said to be written by hardened computer/comic geekmaster Gary Whitta. Wikipedia in it’s wisdom has given rumour that Di Caprio is to play Kaneida, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is to play Tetsuo.

I have high hopes for the film, so let’s all cross our fingers and hope we don’t end up seeing it all set in America or anything silly like that.

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Posted By: Brenton - Category: Animated, Coming Soon

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Supanova 2008 - A Preview

March 10th 2008 00:01

Supanova Nirvana Returns.

Hands on and completely interactive, this year “Supanova” returns to Australia with a cavalcade of familiar faces that have John Doe ready to attack the nearest clone if it sped up the events arrival.
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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Animated, Coming Soon, Film News and Views, Science Fiction

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Coming Soon: March 2008 Australian Cinema Releases

March 2nd 2008 00:00

Australian Cinema Releases: March 2008

As usual this is not a comprehensive list of all the films released in Aussie Cinemas this month. Instead it’s a compilation of big screen arrivals that have an element of interest for John Doe.
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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: In Cinemas, Coming Soon, Film News and Views

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March 2008 - DVD Releases Coming Soon

March 1st 2008 00:01

Australian DVD releases for March 2008

Disclaimer: John doe used to do a regular coming soon section each month specifically geared towards Australian audiences. Over the last few months an increased external work load has taken its toll but now in an effort to get back on track here is the return of the JDM Coming Soon section.
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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Coming Soon, Film News and Views

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No Country for Old Men (2007) - Trailer Included

December 17th 2007 00:01

Dusty Noir Enlightenment

Coming Soon: To be released on January 24th 2008
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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Crime, Coming Soon, Thriller

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The Lookout (2007) - Trailer Included

November 30th 2007 00:00

The Heist of Life

No Australian Release date at the time of writing this review

Writer/Director: Scott Frank
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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Crime, Coming Soon, Thriller

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Australian Cinema Releases - November 2007

November 5th 2007 00:01

Australian Cinema Releases - 2007

Poster for David Lynch's Latest

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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: In Cinemas, Coming Soon, Film News and Views

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Australian DVD Releases - November 2007

November 2nd 2007 01:11

Region 4 DVD Releases - November 2007

Going through the scheduled DVD releases this month in Oz it appears that TV shows old and new dominate the attractions. As always this list is not complete, included are just the titles that tempt John Doe. Hope you see something you like.
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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Coming Soon

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Dragon Wars aka D-Wars (2007) – Trailer Included

October 11th 2007 00:00

Winged Serpents in a cultural conflict

John Doe meets the Director of Dragon Wars plus a few hotties

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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Action, Fantasy/Adventure, Coming Soon

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Brian De Palma talks Redacted

October 8th 2007 11:16

Brian De Palma explains the aim of Redacted

Brian de Palma engineers his latest odyssey

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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Coming Soon, Film News and Views, War

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Quentin Tarantino’s DeathProof (2007) – Trailer Included

October 4th 2007 06:15

A high powered box office death machine?

John Doe’s trip to the U.S of A was filled with visits to cinematic landmarks and the odd historical monument but the greatest pleasure derived from the journey was access to DVD’s currently unavailable in Australia. Due for a bigscreen release in Oz on November 1st JD was lucky enough to grab the 2 disc unrated Special Edition of Mr Tarantino’s latest schlock celluloid salute.
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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Action, In Cinemas, Coming Soon, Horror

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